The Boy Scouts of America, 1910-2010The
Early Decades of Boy Scouting in Nebraska

O. B. Frazier was appointed
scoutmaster of Troop 1 at McCool Junction, York County, on September
11, 1911, little more
than a year after the Boy Scouts of America was founded. The
appointment was signed by James West, the first executive secretary
(later chief scout executive) of the BSA.Source: Loaned by Cornhusker
Council, Boy Scouts of America

Jacket,
knickers, toiletry kit, and belt from the first decade of
Boy Scouting in the United States. The uniform copied the U.S.
Army uniform of 1910, including leggings (not shown here). These
items, except for the knickers, belonged to Ted E. Barger, a
Boy Scout from the McCook, Nebraska, area. The green stripe on
the sleeve indicates that Barger had been a scout for at least
one year.Sources: 11188-1, 3, 5, Ted
E. Barger, courtesy of Anne Barger Hein, Palos Verde Estates,
California; Knickers loaned by Rick Wolzen, Lincoln

This patch
signifying the rank of Second Class Scout would have been sewn
in the middle of the left sleeve of Barger's uniform jacket.
"Un-sewn" patches of this age are rare.Source: 11188-1, Ted E. Barger,
courtesy of Anne Barger Hein, Palos Verde Estates, California

Until 1943 all Boy Scouts and scoutmasters wore what has become
known as the "Smokey
Bear" hat.Source: 7575-605, courtesy
of Ralph E. Garner, Lincoln

List of Qualifications for a Second
Class Scout
(from the 1911 Handbook for Boys)

Cook a quarter pound of meat and two potatoes
in the open without using ordinary kitchen utensils

Earn and deposit at least one dollar in
a public bank

Know the sixteen principal points of the
compass

Boy Scouts from Ted Barger's era learned now-obsolete
skills such as signaling ("wigwagging") in Morse code
with a flag
like this. The white flag with a red center was used when the
signaler was standing in front of a dark background; a light
background required a red flag with a white center. The "Pocket Signal
Disk" has the Morse alphabet on one side and the semaphore
alphabet on the other.Sources: 11188-9, Ted E.
Barger, courtesy of Anne Barger Hein, Palos Verde Estates, California;
3368-215, courtesy Charles M. Shepherd, Lincoln

By 1922 the Boy Scouts of America had modernized
the uniform, as shown here in 1926. A Lincoln Boy Scout was
on hand when Vice-President Charles G. Dawes (fifth from left)
arrived in the capital city on September 30. Governor Adam McMullen
(fourth from left) and Gen. John G. Pershing (sixth from left),
who had been visiting his sister in Lincoln, greeted the vice-president.
Dawes and Pershing had become friends when both lived in Lincoln
in the 1890s. During World War I Dawes was purchasing agent for
Pershing's American army in France. The Lincoln meeting was a
prelude to a week-long hunting trip by the two men in the Nebraska
Sandhills. Source: RG2183:PH1926-09-30:2

The original Lincoln Council, Boy Scouts of America, encompassed
only the city of Lincoln, proper, in 1919. Nearby communities such as Havelock, Bethany,
and University Place that began as separate councils came under
the Lincoln Council in the 1920s.
By 1932
the Lincoln Council, now renamed the Cornhusker Area Council,
had jurisdiction over scouting in fifty-five Nebraska counties
covering some 39,000 square miles. In 1954
two new councils were created in central and western Nebraska,
leaving sixteen southeastern Nebraska counties in today's Cornhusker
Council.

Sash
with sixty merit badges(pdf) earned by Arthur L. Smith Jr. of Troop 41, Lincoln,
about 1930 to 1933. First Class Scouts were eligible for the
badges, which were "intended to stimulate the scout's interest
in the life about him, and are given for general knowledge"(Handbook for Boys, 1925).Source: 11639-1, Arthur L.
Smith Jr., courtesy of Judith Smith Wilson, Lincoln

When a scout satisfied the requirements for
a merit badge, he also received a certificate
provided by the BSA national office. The facsimile signature
of Erwin H. Barbour, University of Nebraska geology professor
and member of the Cornhusker Council Executive Board, appears
on these certificates Arthur Smith Jr. received with his "cement
work" and "sheep farming" merit badges.Source: 11639, 27, 29, Arthur
L. Smith Jr., courtesy of Judith Smith Wilson, Lincoln

Smith earned other
awards including "High Point Scout" in 1929 and
1930 and first in "Discipline" in 1930.Source: 11639-31, 32, 33,
Arthur L. Smith Jr., courtesy of Judith Smith Wilson, Lincoln

Arthur Smith Jr. may have made this neckerchief
to represent his rank of Eagle Scout. There is no evidence that
it was an official Boy Scout item.Source: 11639-36. Arthur
L. Smith Jr., courtesy of Judith Smith Wilson, Lincoln